5 day old chick with bent wing feathers on one side??? Seems lethargi

One of my 14 chicks (all from My Pet Chicken/Meyer's) is acting strange.

Has been totally fine up to last night. Rec'd the chicks on Wednesday morning--they hatched on Monday.

She is a Buckeye.

Has been eating Poulin Grain chick starter, elec/vit for two days, now just plain fresh water. Poops are normal, no pasty butt.

Last night about 1:00 am, I heard loud peeping. Went to the classroom, all looked happy-everything fine. I couldn't tell WHO was peeping! Changed the water, put down fresh p-towels and a new paperplate of crumbles to scratch in. Finally, I saw that it was the Buckeye. She was scratching herself and preening her wing feathers on the right side. Then I noticed that they were clumped together (kind of) and bent outwards. She kept preening them. I watched for about an hour, went back to bed when she settled down and they all went to sleep.

This morning, she seems lethargic. Did see her eat. Poops are normal, but mostly snuggled in. This morning I also took up the p-towels-(WOW! did they LOVE THAT!!!)

Any idea??

I have Poly-VI-SOL on hand, but no other "vitamin-only" supplement to add to the water. Avia Charge is coming on Monday or Tues. So if she needs something, can I add the Poly-VI-SOL to the water?

does it seem as tho her belly is swollen? Can you post a pic of the feathering anomaly you described?

ETA: Have a look at this article >in particular the photo of the feathering anomaly shown... (is this what you are seeing?)http://www.avian.uga.edu/documents/pip/2005/PIPJuly-Aug 2005.pdf
"....Clinically, affected flocks show large numbers of
immobile chicks huddling around the feeders and drinkers within hours after placement. Some may peck incessantly at the walls. The litter quickly becomes damp and chicks may exhibit matted down in the abdominal area as a result of resting on wet litter. Consumption of chick starter feed typically lasts a day or two longer than usual. As early as 6-7 days of age many chicks will already appear stunted, pale and sometimes disoriented, but the usual peak of the problem occurs at around 10-12 days of age. The bodies of affected chicks will look small relative to the length of the primary feathers of the wings and beak. A small number of affected chicks may display helicopter feathers in their wings and other feather
abnormalities..." (see photo in the article to view "helicopter" feathering)

Yuh, I was going to say Runting Stunting Syndrome, as well. We "rescued" a chick from the feed store who appeared to have it. She had been severely chilled. She was teeny. Seriously like 1/4 the size of the same-age chicks; at over 2 weeks old she was small as a day-old. Her wing feathers did a little curly thing in one spot.

However, she recovered (completely, I think) with a really nice warm brooder and some warm mash to eat. I also supplemented with AviaCharge2000 in her feed and water. At 4 weeks, she's nearly caught up in size to the other chicks, and is very vigorous!

On the other hand, we did lose a baby in the first few days who wasn't growing well. She was a really loud chirper, since she arrived, and even though she had energy it was plain she was different in some way. She cried and cried. After a few days, all of a sudden she declined and despite all our efforts she died within a few hours of becoming lethargic and weak.

I know its hard... best thing is to keep her warm , fed, and happy as possible. Good luck.

Right after I replied to DL's post, I went in to take her picture. She was walking around normally and eating and drinking. "WOW!" I thought--"cool--she's fine". Came home and my husband said she was walking around one minute and the next minute, dead.

OH, and when I went back to take her picture, her wing feathers were bigger and flattened out. I couldn't believe how fast things changed with that little chick.

Warm mash = chick starter feed and warm water. I also make it with plain live-culture yogurt sometimes. I found that chicks who aren't feeling well often prefer it (healthy chicks do, too!!!)

I have no idea if it will happen again. But I can tell you that none of our other chicks who came with the one who died have had any problems, and none of them have had any problems after intorducing the stunted chick, either.

Personally I think that some chicks are just born with something "wrong"... in a normal situation maybe the hen might sense a problem and not take care of it... but since they're hatchery chicks there is no nature to step in.

I'm sorry for your loss.... at this point I'd say just keep an eye on the others. As long as they are the proper temperature, have good feed and good water, you're doing your best. Aviacharge is wonderful, and I've no experience giving the baby vitamins, hopefully someone can help you with that.